Silburn Clarke, president of the Land Management Consortium, has argued that a partnership model should be pursued for urban renewal projects in the Corporate Area.
“My position is for a partnership arrangement to be had where the owners of capital, along with the owners of the real estate should jointly if possible put on joint engineer projects where the owners of real estate still have an equity place in what happens afterwards,” he said in an interview with The Gleaner.
Clarke suggested that instead of buying out the poor from the valuable lands they occupy, developers should allow them to be shareholders in the process.
The partnership model envisioned by Clarke would allow the poor to give lands as part of their stake in the development projects. In this way they will be able to reap financial gains from the new housing and construction that will be executed by developers.
“In other words, it is a marrying of my land with your money to create a new outcome. Therefore, rather than me giving away my land to you, I will contribute my land to the joint project and be a beneficiary post construction,” Clarke said as he explained his call for partnerships.